Unit II A Growing America Chapter 18 Section 1 Americans Move West

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Unit II A Growing AmericaChapter 18Section 1
Americans Move West

• Miners, Ranchers, Cowboys and the Railroad
• Lecture Station

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Miners, Ranchers, and Railroads

• The Big Idea
• As more settlers moved West, mining, ranching,
  and railroads soon transformed the western
  landscape.
• Main Ideas
• A mining boom brought growth to the West.
• The demand for cattle created a short-lived
  Cattle Kingdom on the Great Plains.
• East and West were connected by the
  transcontinental railroad.

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Main Idea 1 A mining boom brought growth to the
West.

• Americans continued to move west during the
  1800s.
• The American frontier.
• Settlers built.
• Railroads
• Mining companies

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Mining in the West
Comstock Lode in Nevada.
Miners
Boomtowns
Mining was dangerous.
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Gold Fever

• Sam Brannan- a San Francisco merchant

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• No expression characterized the California gold
  rush more than the words "seeing the elephant."

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Entrepreneurs

• Sam Brannan-
• Levi Straus-
• Phillip Armour-
• John Sudebaker-
• Wells and Fargo

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Main Idea 2 The demand for cattle created a
short-lived Cattle Kingdom on the Great Plains.

• The increasing demand for beef
• Cattle ranchers in Texas drove herds
• Cattle Kingdom -Texas to Canada.
• open range.
• Competition, barbed wire, and the loss of prairie
  grass.

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Ranching Culture
Ranching on the Plains
Cattle Drives
Ranching as Big Business
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Cowboys

• Cowboys
• vaqueros, who were Mexican ranch hands.
• cattle drive.
• The Chisholm Trail.
• Life in cattle towns was often rough and violent.

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Cowboys

• Life on the Range

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Cowboys- Myths or Truth

• 1) The Cowboy Life was Glamorous.
• Myth or Truth?

Myth- 18 hour days and the long trail drive were
boring
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Cowboys- Myths or Truth

• 2) Most cowboys had small or medium frames
• Myth or Truth?

Truth- large men were to heavy to ride the
mustangs
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Cowboys- Myths or Truth

• 3) The Cowboy would ride his favorite horse all
  day.
• Myth or Truth?

Myth- Cowboys would ride a string of horses
depending the task at hand. Mild horses at
night, and quick horses for daylight roping and
driving.
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Cowboys- Myths or Truth

• 4) Many Cowboys were Mexican or African
  American.
• Myth or Truth?

Truth- 1/6th of cowboys were Mexican and many
were African/American, Former Confederates and
even Native American.
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Cowboys- Myths or Truth

• 5) Most Cowboys were older experienced
  wranglers.
• Myth or Truth?

Myth- Most were young men who learned on the job.
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Cowboys- Myths or Truth

• 6) Women could not be cowboys.
• Myth or Truth?

Myth- Several women owned cattle ranches and ran
their own cattle drives.
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Cowboys- Myths or Truth

• 7) Cowboys often had to fight off native
  Americans.
• Myth or Truth?

Myth- Cowboys rarely if ever fought with Native
Americans
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Cowboys- Myths or Truth

• 8) The word Cowboy was invented in Texas.
• Myth or Truth?

Myth- The word Cowboy comes from the Spanish
word Vaquero
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Cowboys

• The word cowboy is actually a Spanish word,
  "vaquero." The name Cowpoke comes from the end
  of the cattle drive when the cowboys had to push
  the cattle onto the trains with a stick or prod.

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Long Horns
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Cattle Raising

• "the open range" - public land open to anyone who
  used it for cattle grazing - periodic roundups to
  brand and gather cattle for slaughter or market.
• A less known aspect of "cowboying" was
  mustanging.

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Cattle Drives

• 1866- A Steer worth 4 in Texas sold for 40 in
  the East.
• Need to drive a herd to a railroad town
• Major trails- Chisholm, Goodnight Loving, Western
  and Sedalia.
• Drive lasted 3 months
• 10-12 miles per day.
• 2/3 of cowboys were teenagers between the ages of
  12-18.
• Conflict over the open range.

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Cattle Drives
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Branding
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Saddle and Ropes
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Clothing - Cowboy Hat and Boots
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Cowboy Life

• 1/3 of the cowboys were former slaves and most of
  the others were former confederate soldiers.
• Music.
• A cowboy worked 15 hours a day for .80 a day.
• Son of a Gun stew was the favorite meal
• Cowboys didnt actually kiss their horses,

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Cowboys in the Movies
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Main Idea 3East and West were connected by the
transcontinental railroad.

• The growth of the West created a need for
  communication across the country.
• The Pony Express
• Telegraph lines
• Demand for a transcontinental railroad grew.
• Congress passed the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862
  and 1864,
• The railroads agreed to carry mail and troops at
  a lower cost.

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Pony Express
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Pony Express

• Riders Between 80 and 100
• Salary 100 per month
• Qualifications Age ranged from 11 to mid 40s.
  Riders had to weigh less than 125 lbs. One of the
  most famous was Buffalo Bill Cody
• Youngest Rider Legend has it that Bronco Charlie
  Miller was eleven years old when he rode for the
  Pony Express.
• Riders Changed 75 to 100 miles.
• Horses Changed 10 to 15 miles.
• Speed of Rider Average 10 miles per hour.
• Horses About 400 Mustangs and Morgans
• Stations Estimated between 150 and 190 of them.
  Located every 5 - 20 miles.
• Mochila Saddlebag designed especially to carry
  mail on the eastern end were made by Israel
  Landis.
• Route 1966 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri to
  Sacramento, California. Crossed Missouri River
  by Ferry boat, at the foot of Francis
  Street.Time 10 days.
• Quickest Run 7 days and 17 hours. The riders
  were carrying President Lincoln's Inaugural
  Address.
• Total Miles Covered Approximately 650,000 miles.
  
• Longest Ride Pony Bob Haslam. rode 370 miles --
  Friday Station to Smith Creek Station and back
  again.
• Cost of Mail 5 per 1/2 ounce at first. Later,
  the price was 1 per 1/2 ounce.

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Transcontinental Railroad

• Union Pacific and Central Pacific.
• 6 1/2 years to complete
• Union Pacific from Omaha, Neb.
• Central Pacific from Sacramento, California.
• May 10, 1869- Promontory Point, Utah east and
  west linked. Trade, jobs, and settlement.

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Railroads expand and gird the nation

• Land grants
• Two miles on either side of track. The railroad
  got every other square mile to sell and use for
  building.

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Standard Time

• Time
• Each town had its own time according to the sun.
• Using local time caused confusion between cities.
• Being on time could stop fatal collisions.
• Decided to have railroad time be Standard Time-
  4 time zones across the nation and marked on maps
• Adopted in 1918

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Standard Gauge

• Gauge
• 1860- 350 different railroad companies and 30,000
  miles of track.
• No national network- many railroad had different
  gauge (distance from one rail to the other.)
• 11 different gauges
• This caused a lot of changing of railroad cars.
• 1869 transcontinental railroad used 4feet 8 1/2
  inches
• This became the standard gauge.

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Results of the Railroad
Growth

• Economic growth and population in the West
  increased.
• Railroads provided better transportation for
  people and goods
• They also encouraged people to move west.
• Railroads became one of the countrys biggest
  industries.

Panic of 1873

• Railroad speculation increased.
• The collapse of railroad owner Jay Cookes
  banking firm helped start the Panic of 1873.
• Many small western railroads were deeply in debt
  by the 1880s.

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